Link Dump Friday №185

Greetings, Internet of the Future! I hope this missive finds you well, as it was written in the distant past of last week to prepare for the vacation I am currently on. Through the magic of the interwebs, it's like I've never left! (Though I totally have.) This week we bring you airships, whales, foxes playing soccer, and a panda bear on an island with a cave man! As you can see, coherency is very important to us around here.

Gearlock Episode 1 - Hyptosis, whose work you might be familiar with, created this little point-and-click adventure as an excuse to draw some airships a compulsion I completely understand. (Or at least I would if I were in any way artistically inclined.) In it, you are the Captain of one of the aforementioned spaceships, and awake to find you're being followed and fired upon by people who are apparently after a prisoner you hold. The game is fairly short, and a little confusing, but features some gorgeous production values. Goodness knows I love me some twangy musical scores.

Evolution - You may remember that Doodle God was rather redonkulously popular, and if you enjoyed it, you'll probably enjoy this similar puzzler where you try to combine various elements to unlock new ones and create life. Although you get to see the effects your creations are having on your tiny island oasis (sort of), some of the combinations can be a bit odd. Thankfully, David Duchovny does not make an appearance, but they are missing the most important combination; JiG + Sunglasses = YEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Romeo and Juliet - It's about time we checked in on Minoto again, and, uh. Don't really... remember Shakespeare's classic tale of star-crossed codependency involving a mouse riding an aerosol spray can. Or a penguin in a jet. Um. Well... if you come to Minoto expecting the puzzles to make any sort of sense or have anything other than the most tenuous of connections to the source material, you're the weird one. (I don't know about you guys, but my favourite is still Beard of Santa.)

Whale of Noise - In this artsy-farsty, open-to-interpretation-sy exploration-type game, you play a whale traversing the depths of the sea, alone, and relying on your ability to sing to navigate through a series of tunnels. The farther you go, the more you have to stretch yourself, singing higher notes as you try to reach a brighter place until... ! Well, I suppose that depends on what you take away from it.

Escape the Ladies Room - Featuring what I believe to be the only singing/kazoo playing toilet in JiG history, this escape game is a little... odd. Fortunately, if you are among those of us who are just neurotic enough (guilty) to be squicked out by the notion of public restrooms, you will never have to worry about this danger. If you do brave the horror of the Stalls, however, you might want to play this to brush up what to do. It's bound to happen to you sometime.

Gearlock was great, thanks for the link. It had everything I want in a point and click - great art and mood, logical problem solving, nice music. The only problem was when it ended. Looking forward to the next part.

I loved the Minoto too. Clicking the '?' on each item on those games is probably my favourite part. The descriptions are often bafflingly unexpected and have me laughing at the surrealness.

Well, I don't generally make a habit of going into ladies' rooms but if I do I hope I find one fully equipped with all of the materials needed to escape if I'm unlucky enough to be locked in. That was kind of fun.

And as always I love the Minoto games to death. I like to read the descriptions out loud to my friends over our chat program without giving them any clues to what is going on. I think they think I'm a bit loony.

Just as a warning to people who like to play other games that might be on sites that are linked here: Avoid the game sub/conscious on the whale of noise site. It has a very nsfw gimmic that does google image searches for things like "underage girls naked" which is a terrible thing to have in your browser history...

Adding to Jenysis, "Math Land" on that site will deliberately crash your browser at a certain point. As a rule, it's not a bad idea to read the comments before playing any of Increpare's games, so you can see if anyone says "Is a hand supposed to reach out from the screen and ghgakfkkaf"

Great hint-through, elle, thanks! There was one step I don't think I'd have been able to work out on my own (how to use the thing described in step 12 - I had the object but had no idea what to do with it) so this was just what was needed :-)

looks like Alchemy/DoodleGod/Eveolution is the next big thing- there's even a version running around in Second Life now. Although all the phone and desktop versions I've seen use basically the same combos- would be nice if someone broke the mold.

Two things I had trouble with in Escape The Ladies Room (besides the usual things that the hint-through helped with, thanks Elle).

To get into the 2nd toilet stall you have to click near the top of the door.

After zooming out of the changing table by clicking on the bottom ('hehe, "bottom"', she said childishly) you have to click on the top to zoom out further. I thought the game had frozen up; I don't know what made me finally click up there.

ROMEO and JULIET WALKTHROUGH
For just in case anyone gets stuck on this.
The spoilers are scaffolded and divided by scene to prevent giving away too much at once.

Scene One:

A pony is bouncing around unrestrained.
You have nothing that can be done here yet, so move on to the next scenes.
Come back when you have the . . .

Rope.
Get the rope . . .

. . . from boat, after it docks (click boat to make it dock).

Use the rope to tie up the pony.
Then Romeo moves to Scene Two and this scene is finished.

Scene Two:

This scene isn't revealed until you solve Scene One.

Juliet's in her balcony. A mouse is flying around on an aerosol can. A dippy-toy-bird pecks at a plate of yummy fish pate'.
*Pick up a bottle of cleaner (by Romeo's feet).
1. Nothing more can be done here until you get . . .

Something to catch the mouse.

Get the net after the fox kicks a soccer ball into it.
Use the net to catch the mouse. When you catch the mouse...

*Pick-up the aerosol can.

2. Once the above is finished, come back when you have . . .

Something to stop the dipping bird.

Perhaps blocking the bird's food would stop it.
Come back when you have . . .

The kitten. The poor little kitten is found in the . . .

. . . coin-operated dispenser by the soccer-player.

By stopping the bird from dipping, you'll be able to . . .

*Pick-up the powder.

3. After doing all of the above, you can't do anything else here until . . .

You have a big sponge. Get the sponge by . . .

Putting the powder in the boiling pot of water.

4. When you have completed steps 1-3 . . .

Put the sponge where the arrow indicates.

Juliet jumps out of her balcony and bounces out of sight with Romeo.
Shakespeare's ending has nothing over Minoto's version!

Scene Three:

A sailor waits to dock by a rather oily beach.

Click on the sailor to help him dock.
*Pick up the rope.
*Pick up the pan.

Nothing more can be done here until...

.... you find something to clean up the oil.

Get the cleaner from Romeo after you tether the horse.

Use the cleaner on the oily beach.
*Pick up the blackmouth goosefish (notice its glowing head lantern).

Later you can use the . . .

Aerosol can.
Attach it to the hose. Out comes a . . .

Ball of gold which the sailor smashes . . .
*Pick-up the coin.

After all that, you're done with this scene.

Scene Four:

A fox playing soccer by an over-sized coin-operated dispenser.
No matter how often he kicks the ball, it comes rick back to him.
*Pick up the match
Nothing more can be done here until you find a...

A fan-blade for the broken fan. Get the fan-blade from the...

Penguin's airplane, after he lands.

After you attach the fan-blade, click on the fox.
He'll kick the ball into the net, allowing you to . . .

*Pick-up the net.

Next, you'll need a . . .

Coin. Get the coin by . . .

Attaching the aerosol can to the hose.

Once you have the coin, put it in the dispenser then . . .
*Pick-up the kitten.

Nothing more is needed in this scene after that.

Scene Five:

A penguin hovers over the landing strip.
It seems the penquin needs help landing his airplane.

The landing strip is not lit up sufficiently.
You need to use . . .

The match (found by the soccer-playing Fox).

Light the match over the fire then light the five other fires all the way to the back-end of the landing strip.

There still is a problem, though. You also need . . .

. . . another source of light from the front-end of the landing strip.

Place the lantern-headed blackmouth goosefish at the front end of the landing strip.

When the penguin lands . . .

* pick-up the fan-blade.

In the meantime, one of the fires has a convenient rack over it. You can . . .

. . . put the pot on the fire. It starts to boil.
There is nothing more you can do with the pot until you have . . .

The powder. Get the powder from . . .

. . . the dipping bird in scene two.

Put the powder in the pot.
It will automatically change into a sponge in your inventory.
After that, there's nothing more to do in this scene.

I enjoyed EVOLUTION and I hope there's a sequel, perhaps a longer version (much the way Achievement Unlocked 2 was five times the game as the first).

But... I just can't figure out WHALE of NOISE. I am unable to pass through that narrow tunnel at the top. Number keys produce no singing, despite what the directions say. Is it a browser issue or game issue?

Anyhow, I'm home sick this weekend, so am catching up on a lot of casual gaming. I can always count on Jay is Games -- Thanks guys!

Whale of Noise was interesting, but basically pointless.. very pretty though. Good time waster.

Escape the Ladies Room: lol, did anyone say 'a wee screwdriver' out loud in a scottish/irish accent? Haha. This game.. well, there's actually nothing I have to say other than the beginning and ending music was creeeeeepy.

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